'ReThink!' mixes the old and new

Since arriving in North America, Europeans have admired authentic goods made by Native American artisans such as beaded tennis sneakers, prints of the Statue of Liberty and pottery picturing alcohol abuse.

Since arriving in North America, Europeans have admired authentic goods made by Native American artisans such as beaded tennis sneakers, prints of the Statue of Liberty and pottery picturing alcohol abuse.

Or maybe you’d rather see an ancient Iroquois pipe, pottery by Pueblo Indians or a razor-sharp Cheyenne knife in a fringed sheath.

If you’d like to view both kinds of Native American art, visit Fruitlands Museum to see "ReThink!,’’ an intriguing exhibit that will make you do just that.

Juxtaposing traditional Native American artifacts from the Harvard museum’s collection with work by six contemporary Native American artists across the country, this show invites visitors to compare objects from different eras in light of their own expectations.

And by confronting visitors with contrasting kinds of Native American objects across history, "ReThink!’’ nudges them to reexamine their own ideas about their makers’ identities, past and present.

Subtitled "American Indian Art,’’ it was originally organized by the Berkshire Museum. Fruitlands’ new executive director, Wyona Lynch-McWhite, brought the exhibit to the museum where she and chief curator Michael Volmar adapted it to include objects from their collection.

Reflecting the intentions of organizers from both museums, "ReThink!’’ aims to do more than present "historic American Indian art … as artifacts of people now long gone.’’

Volmar said visitors will encounter "a lot of really amazing Native American art that they don’t often get to see.’’

Volmar said he and Lynch-McWhite wanted to bring "ReThink!’’ to Fruitlands because they were interested in how the exhibit "blended together historical and contemporary objects’’ in ways that "let us highlight our small but significant collection of 1,100 Native American objects.’’

Consider perfectly functional moccasins made from rawhide by Plains Indians and decorated with glass beads acquired from traders. Compare them with cool blue, high-top sneakers decorated with contemporary images made by Teri Greeves.

The real delight of "ReThink!’’ is viewing such groupings, which nudges visitors to re-examine not just their own ideas of Native American art but of their own expectations.

Volmar, who has a PhD in anthropology with a concentration in Native American history, said people seeing Native American art tend "to believe the older objects are somehow more authentic’’ than work by contemporary artists.

For a case in point, consider a strategically placed grouping of traditional and modern totem poles.

Entering the Main Gallery, visitors will first see a traditional totem pole from the Northwest made from a sperm whale’s jawbone and intricately carved with stylized animal figures. It combines remarkable craftsmanship with the powerful aura of a Native American culture from long ago.

Is the older object somehow more authentic than the contemporary piece? Could you say the same thing about 17th and 20th century paintings of the Madonna and child?

Volmar observed, "Sometimes it seems that people have the idea that Indians are supposed to live and make art like they did 200 years ago but the rest of us can have cell phones.’’

While many traditional objects were originally made for daily use, or, sometimes, to be sold to Europeans, Volmar said most of the contemporary work was intentionally made as art even if it still had a practical use.

But Western viewers must ask themselves whether they can judge traditional objects by the same aesthetic values of beauty, harmony and proportion they’d apply to a painting by Cezanne or a Henry Moore sculpture.

For the Native American artists, traditional materials and subjects are something to build up and not be limited by.

Marcus Amerman stated, "What’s truly Indian is always there.’’

"It’s not something that fades away with how you are dressed or what kind of car you’re driving,’’ he said. "But it’s always there, living on even if the circumstances or the clothing may change. What’s Indian is still Indian.’’